Brooklyn Riverside, a 310-unit apartment complex under construction behind the Fresh Market shopping center, will have a modern urban look, developers say.

Brooklyn Riverside apartments bringing 'urban chic' to town

Tuesday, September 2, 10:25 AM EDT

By Carole Hawkins, Staff Writer

Jacksonville isn’t especially known for its modern edgy urban look.

But that’s what’s coming with a $40 million apartment complex known as Brooklyn Riverside, now under construction behind Brooklyn’s Fresh Market shopping center.

With square industrial lines and metal trim, it’s a design that fully embraces a city lifestyle.

“It’s an opportunity to have a more urban environment than what you get from Downtown’s conversion apartments,” said Brian Oates of Pollack Shores Real Estate Group, the project’s developer.

The target market is young professionals working in the Downtown and Riverside area, he said.

The project is one of four developments underway or in the planning stages within blocks of each other in the area of the Interstate 10-Interstate 95 interchange portending a Downtown renaissance.

220 Riverside, an upscale mixed-use apartment complex with a connecting events venue, Unity Plaza, has long been the headline act in Brooklyn.

Just north of that, a shopping center anchored by Fresh Market promises some trendy retail. And a few blocks on the other side of the interstate is the planned Beacon Riverside, Jacksonville’s first luxury high-rise apartment in a decade.

The 310-unit Brooklyn Riverside apartment complex rounding out the quadrille is a bit lesser known.

Its developer, Pollack Shores, is an Atlanta multifamily developer/investor that focuses on urban infill projects in the Southeast.

Oates says demographics show young professionals want to be closer to Downtown.

“We think there’s an opportunity for more high-end apartments for those people,” he said.

The property’s original developer was Atlanta-based Pope & Land Enterprises Inc., which acquires and improves mixed-use property. The company spent about two years buying up residential parcels for the project, Oates said. Pollack Shores got involved after the area had been rezoned.

Urban chic living is what Brooklyn Riverside delivers.

Its designers pushed its seven buildings to the exterior of the site, so it looks more like a city block, unlike suburban-style apartments, which typically surround central buildings with parking space.